The Notion of Norm in The History of Translation: Pragmatic Aspects

Abstract

In this paper we shall consider the pragmatic aspects of translation that are connected with the participants in the translation act: the Sender (S), the Reciever (R), the Translator (Tr). Most East European and Soviet linguists view translation as indirect cross-Ianguage and cross-cultural communication (Jager, 1975: Komissarov, 1980: Shveitser, 1988). Translation is necessitated when participants do not share a common language; due to this, direct communication, which is a two phase process (creation of the text by S and perception of the text by R), indirect communication via a Tr has in addition an intermediate stage, of transforming the text expressed in one language code into the language code of the R. The task of the Tr is to facilitate the contact between participants who do not share a common language, and to retain an equivalence between the original text and the textthat results from the transformation. The translator's role is compl icated by the fact that the primary communication act and the secondary communication act may be taking place in different historical, temporal and cultural locations